How can I tell if I have bricked my Slate Plus router?

Router
1

I purchased a new GL-A1300 Slate Plus and am having a hard time getting logged in to it. Is it bricked?

I got it physically set up, then navigated to 192.168.8.1 and the set up page came up.
I selected English as the language.
Then it prompted me to set up a password. I did so, and got logged in, but then realized I hadn’t actually captured the password I used and couldn’t remember it, so I started over.

The “forgot password” instructions directed me to press and hold the Reset button for 10 seconds, so I did that.

I went back to 192.168.8.1. I selected English as the language. I entered a different password, twice. When I clicked Apply, there was just a spinny icon that went on forever and ever.

I went through this process again. This time I got the error message: “Unknown network error occurred. Please check the network environment or reboot the device.”

I went through all kinds of trial and error with rebooting the modem, rebooting the router, etc, trying trying to get the right combination of things turning on in the right order.

Eventually, it worked! I was logged in, I was able to rename the SSID and update a few settings.

When I had it all the way I wanted it, I decided I should change the admin password one more time. I thought that would be easy to do.

Unfortunately no, I ended up in the same loop. Then, somehow, I got it to work again. I again thought, this all looks solid now, I’m just going to update the admin password and be done. Again, I ended up in the same loop.

This took all of my Saturday and part of my Sunday. I’m at a loss. I’ve reset this thing probably 15 times. The light on the front is glowing solid white right now, which is supposed to indicate that it’s working normally.

Is this what it would behave like when it’s bricked? Is there something else happening? Is this a known issue?

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.

-Goliath

2

Hi

Sorry for the inconvenience caused.

There is currently an issue in the initialization page of A1300 v4.5.22 where passwords containing special characters cannot be handled correctly. Please try setting a temporary simple password using only letters and numbers.

After you successfully log in, you can change the password back to a strong one with special characters under SYSTEM → Security → Admin Password, and then continue using the device normally.

This issue will be fixed in the next firmware release.
It has also already been fixed in the v4.7.x beta firmware.

4

Thanks so much, that was the issue. When I made the admin password for the router something without numbers or symbols, it let me in just fine. I will note, the issue with special characters seems to go beyond just the admin password.

After I successfully logged in with a letters only (but very long) password and tried to set up an SSID and password for a network, as soon as I set that network password the router disconnected from the internet. When I went back and used a letters only (but also very long) password, it was okay.

I haven’t yet tried to upgrade the admin password to include special characters or numbers. Do you know if there’s a general timeline of when the next firmware update will come out?

5

We’ve already asked the product team to prioritize the release of the stable version for the A1300.
However, there isn’t a specific timeline we can share at the moment.

Our office will also be closed for the upcoming Chinese New Year holiday and will reopen on the 24th February, so there may not be any updates in the near term.